USA Loses in WBC

YES!

That means Joe Mauer can come back to the team early. The tournament itself is worthless so the ONLY good news from it is that teams with your favorite players lose BEFORE your favorite players get hurt.

I've never rooted so hard for a USA loss. It's too bad they couldn't have lost sooner.

In other Twins news:

Liam Hendriks gave up 3 earned runs in four innings yesterday in the Twins 5-0 loss to the Red Sox. He's given up FOUR homeruns in his last two starts.

 I'm still wondering if the Twins have more than one or two starters worth getting excited about. What bothers me the most is that Gardy and Anderson said they'd like to have seen Liam "throw a better mix of pitches."  I hate to say this, but isn't that the CATCHER'S JOB when you have inexperienced arms on the mound. Surely BOTH Gardy and Anderson aren't that stupid are they?

That would be like an offensive coordinator and head coach in football wishing that their QB would throw "a few more long passes" to mix things up, when they CALL the plays.

Baffling.

I keep forgetting that Scott Diamond isn't going to be available at the beginning of the season either. He had bone chips removed from his elbow in January, and even though he's is scheduled to get some live batters to pitch to on Monday, he's most likely going to miss the first few weeks of the season.

Our rotation at season's start is going to be so much WORSE than last year's.

Most likely: (based on contract status of old vets we paid good money too?)

Worley, Pelfrey, Correia, DeVries, and Hendriks.

Diamond will be added later (and Gibson after that IF he finds his control.) Deduno is the the long-shot in all of this BUT he did pitch GREAT against team USA and Mauer Thursday night.

De Vries and Hendriks are already ON the 40-man roster, so they are the odds on favorites, though Hendriks IS getting some bad reviews from those who matter most. He's still better than Correia and Pelfrey but, sadly, we've already mentioned why  they'll both most likely make the team unless they get injured.